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THE ELITE JOURNAL.
VOL. II. BLOOMINGTON, ILL., FEB. 8, 1889. No. XII
THE OLD HARPER,
OR TRUE GRIEF.
Translated from an ancient copy of Wilhelm Meister,
BY MRS. GEORGE STEVENS.
I.
Who ne'er with tears hath eaten his bread,
Nor spent in grief night's solemn hours,
Nor weeping sat upon his bed;
He knows you not, ye heavenly powers.
II.
Ye lead us down in the dark earth-life,
Where crime becomes the poor man's wooer,
And leave him to pain and bitter strife,
Where all deeds return upon the doer.*
*Interpretation-Goethe means no doubt in the first stanza
to say that sorrow is a great educator, making us acquainted
with our higher intellectual nature, but that as the second
verse continues these powers of soul lead it down amid the
glitter of earthly knowledge, which darkens the spirit's eye.
Intellectual powers alone can do nothing for the uplifting of
t ie soul more than to educate it in the material world. They
leave it standing alone in nature, "without hope and with-out
God," where every sin avenges itself upon the sinner,
holding in itself the bitter shaft of punishment. Man has
free will, says Goethe, and unrepentant must take the con-sequences
of his own wrong doing. Some think the forego-ing
lines an accusation against the Providences. I do not so
understand them. TRANSL iTOR.
THE LIGHT FANTASTIO "
JIM CROW.
Truly there are very few mortals who
would confess themselves free from fault.
And still fewer are they who would confess
their neighbors to be perfect. There comes
the inclination to cry, "Inconsistency," when
we see one specimen of frailty finding and
disclosing the flaws of character and belief of
another. But let us consider the motives and
results. If the mortal, seeing with mortal
eyes, pronounces himself perfect, or nearly
so, and bewails the lamentable depravity of
his fellow man, thus changing his own faults
to saintliness and the flaws of his neighbors to
darkest sinfulness, there is certainly good
reason to cry, "Inconsistency." But when
the fault finder sees himself a sinner with
daily and hourly temptations to overcome,
and attacks what he may consider flaws in
other persons for the purpose of inducing
thought and free discussion, the case is
changed and the cry of "Inconsistency" be-comes
inconsistent from the fact that the
fault finder voluntarily lays himself open to
the same process which he would inflict upon
others. So much by way of process.
At this time, when spiritually reviving in-fluences
have been sweeping over the coun-try,
and subjects relating to the spiritual
welfare have been discussed, it is specially
fitting to notice an institution, or practice,
which influences more or less strongly a large
class of people.
From the time when Methodism became
Methodism, the dance as commonly prac-ticed
has been classed as vanity, dry, profif-less
and unbecoming to Christian people, fit
only to be indulged in by those who have but
light or indifferent thoughts as to the wel-fare
of the soul. But Methodism has been
attacked as being too strict, and it may be
that these doctrinal utterances have been but
the hollow and too severe sounding of enthu-siastic
pessimists if th@ expression may be
allowed. Strong men, as they are generally
classed, may be found to say that such is the
case, and that the spiritual advocate who ut-ters
them is, on this point at least, on the
verge of fanaticism, and would take away or

THE ELITE JOURNAL.
VOL. II. BLOOMINGTON, ILL., FEB. 8, 1889. No. XII
THE OLD HARPER,
OR TRUE GRIEF.
Translated from an ancient copy of Wilhelm Meister,
BY MRS. GEORGE STEVENS.
I.
Who ne'er with tears hath eaten his bread,
Nor spent in grief night's solemn hours,
Nor weeping sat upon his bed;
He knows you not, ye heavenly powers.
II.
Ye lead us down in the dark earth-life,
Where crime becomes the poor man's wooer,
And leave him to pain and bitter strife,
Where all deeds return upon the doer.*
*Interpretation-Goethe means no doubt in the first stanza
to say that sorrow is a great educator, making us acquainted
with our higher intellectual nature, but that as the second
verse continues these powers of soul lead it down amid the
glitter of earthly knowledge, which darkens the spirit's eye.
Intellectual powers alone can do nothing for the uplifting of
t ie soul more than to educate it in the material world. They
leave it standing alone in nature, "without hope and with-out
God," where every sin avenges itself upon the sinner,
holding in itself the bitter shaft of punishment. Man has
free will, says Goethe, and unrepentant must take the con-sequences
of his own wrong doing. Some think the forego-ing
lines an accusation against the Providences. I do not so
understand them. TRANSL iTOR.
THE LIGHT FANTASTIO "
JIM CROW.
Truly there are very few mortals who
would confess themselves free from fault.
And still fewer are they who would confess
their neighbors to be perfect. There comes
the inclination to cry, "Inconsistency," when
we see one specimen of frailty finding and
disclosing the flaws of character and belief of
another. But let us consider the motives and
results. If the mortal, seeing with mortal
eyes, pronounces himself perfect, or nearly
so, and bewails the lamentable depravity of
his fellow man, thus changing his own faults
to saintliness and the flaws of his neighbors to
darkest sinfulness, there is certainly good
reason to cry, "Inconsistency." But when
the fault finder sees himself a sinner with
daily and hourly temptations to overcome,
and attacks what he may consider flaws in
other persons for the purpose of inducing
thought and free discussion, the case is
changed and the cry of "Inconsistency" be-comes
inconsistent from the fact that the
fault finder voluntarily lays himself open to
the same process which he would inflict upon
others. So much by way of process.
At this time, when spiritually reviving in-fluences
have been sweeping over the coun-try,
and subjects relating to the spiritual
welfare have been discussed, it is specially
fitting to notice an institution, or practice,
which influences more or less strongly a large
class of people.
From the time when Methodism became
Methodism, the dance as commonly prac-ticed
has been classed as vanity, dry, profif-less
and unbecoming to Christian people, fit
only to be indulged in by those who have but
light or indifferent thoughts as to the wel-fare
of the soul. But Methodism has been
attacked as being too strict, and it may be
that these doctrinal utterances have been but
the hollow and too severe sounding of enthu-siastic
pessimists if th@ expression may be
allowed. Strong men, as they are generally
classed, may be found to say that such is the
case, and that the spiritual advocate who ut-ters
them is, on this point at least, on the
verge of fanaticism, and would take away or